I have received a couple of contacts today in regard to city council member Sheree Lustgarten, who has apparently produced a lease to a house inside the city limits of Patterson. In addition, she registered to vote at that same address. I was advised that she was able to avoid another mess at the 11th hour like she has done so many times before.
The city is apparently satisfied with this development as there seems to be no further action to be taken on their part.
Sadly, these type issues are all too common in local governments across the country these days as we seem to be continually having the wrong type of publicity being directed into the local governments, and this being tough times without this type of drama.
Back in court this morning at 9:30 am the first thing I noticed standing outside with the bee reporter at actually showed up for motions. This is really a first. The court had started about 9:35 am and they were discussing some scheduling and general business issues and about 940 the bee reporter got up and left to never return. It will be interesting to see if there is a article put in the bee today about this morning’s hearing that he didn’t actually stick around to hear about, but yet I keep hearing that he is unbiased and fair.
Now back to the really important things. There was basically some scheduling issues discussed as Jesse Garcia is requesting a four-day work week for his physical therapy needs, and is asking for either a Wednesday down or Friday down. Part of the problem that Jesse Garcia has is he just had a complete shoulder replacement a few months ago and cannot put pressure on it as of yet with crutches. But apparently has purchased equipment like a wheelchair to be able to maneuver into the courtroom.
Mme. DA Ferrera advise the court and attorneys that all information about the Hampton incident in Oakdale has been turned over to discovery including the incident itself and his alleged suicide attempt. Also investigator Steve Jacobson has not completed his report of his involvement with Patrick Hampton on the day of the Oakdale incident. Now being former law enforcement myself, I am aware that it does not take three weeks to complete a report on the incident that they claim they had no involvement in, nor took any statements from this professional snitch. It appears to me that they are being very careful what they write in this report, probably being reviewed by attorneys to try to stay on the safe side of this. This type of report that you claim you did not interview or talk to the subject would take less than a half an hour to write.
Mme. DA estimated there are 10 remaining witnesses with some of them are going to be lengthy testimonies, and some of them are going to be very quick. She also stated that Robert Woody’s mother would be called soon because she’s in poor health that want to get her testimony as a matter of record.
Attorney Magana also made a request of all the DOJ results from tests run at the Pop n Cork, as a took a large amount of soil samples and other evidence from the store in the property. She also requested that any surveillance logs that were kept as there was a large number of surveillance and tailing of the outlaw brothers by multiple investigators. Mme. DA stated that there are no other testing results outstanding as a have been discovered, meaning another area that they have no physical evidence.
Ms Magana also advised the court that the audio recordings of the Cooley lie detector test cannot be heard because it just nothing but a large buzz throughout the recording and requested that the DA supply better copies.
Finally the Atty. Gen. for the state representing the Department of Corrections and attempt to squash a subpoena for the confidential records of the snitches Patrick Hamilton and Ronald Cooper. The judge took the records with the Atty. Gen. into chambers in camera, then revealed she is going to take it under submission and rule on the motion on Tuesday.
Court was then adjourned for the day and to be continued on Monday at 10 AM, for more motions to be heard namely Robert Forkner’s motion concerning DA’s ongoing misconduct. There is also a second motion that can be heard that day in regards to a request by Frank Carson but I cannot remember what it was reference to.
Another note Robert Woody who apparently has been housed at another facility outside this County is going to be brought in for a court appearance on Monday in judge Cordova’s courtroom, I think I will make an effort to either be there myself for have somebody there to tell me what’s going on so we can report it to you.
Just as a reminder today there will be a motion hearing with the state Atty. Gen.’s office appearing to try to squash a subpoena for the confidential files from the Department of Corrections in regards to I believe it’s Patrick Hampton.
The preliminary hearing itself is in limbo still until we get more information on the condition of Jesse Garcia. They have also scheduled a second motion hearing on Monday for what I believe is Mr. Forkner’s motion in regards to prosecutor misconduct.
The city of Patterson is now claiming one of their council members has abandoned her seat on the council
Sheree Lustgarten was evicted from her home in March according to court records, and now official say she has provided improve she still lives within city limits as per the regulations.
The city could declare she has abandoned her seat and appoint replacement or hold a special election.
It has been an ongoing battle between the city of Patterson and this Councilwoman and it took another strange twist this week when a city report stated the Councilwoman, is in danger of abandoning her seat on the council by failing to prove she still with the lives within city limits. The city of Patterson has made several attempts apparently to verify where she’s living and she has not cooperated in providing a new address.
According to the report Lusgarten was evicted from her home on Kern Creek Lane in order to pay $7360 in legal fees and vacate the home by March 17.
The report went on to say that she has made conflicting representations about her residency staying on different occasions that she has moved out and is living with a friend, but other times have denied moving out of the residence. At the March 30 city Council meeting she made a representation of the city Council that she is not yet moved, however court records indicate that miss Lusgarten was no longer a resident at 1347 Kern Creek Ln. as of March 17, 2016.
Government codes require that she update the city with any change of addresses in the report states she has refused to do so. She told the Patterson irrigator newspaper the city had not tried, in any official capacity to obtain her current address.
If she doesn’t comply the Council, which recently asked the state Atty. Gen.’s office to allow it to sue to remove her from office for other reasons, could claim she has abandoned the seed and fill it through an appointment or special election. A special closed session meeting has been scheduled for Friday.
She did not attend this Tuesday’s regular meeting and has missed four of the city’s eight scheduled meetings this year including the state of the city address.
Even as this controversy was about to play out, and the recent suicide of her husband, she told the Modesto bee she is considering running for a second term. She has been at odds with the city throughout her first term, and officials accuse her of perjury by claiming on disclosure forms she had never declared bankruptcy or had been arrested on any criminal charges when in fact she had dating to 1997 in Riverside County. Organizers of a recall effort against her have suspended the effort until the state rules on whether to permit the lawsuit.
Another probe determined she tried to intimidate and bully people at the Hammons senior center in Patterson. And recently in Stanislaus Superior Court extended a restraining order that keeps her 100 yards away from Councilman Dennis McCord, because he said she threatened to kill him.
This Councilman seems to be filled with drama every time she turned around. And if she’s going to be running for a second term why is she not attending the meetings now?
FALSE STORY: All Americans Will Receive a Microchip Implant in 2017
Despite multiple, detailed debunkings (at snopes.com at elsewhere), the rumor that the provisions of Obamacare require that Americans submit to the implantation of microchips that will record and store retrievable medical information (and a host of other personal details) is a persistent one.
One of the pieces of “evidence” now commonly proffered in support of this claim is a video clip from an NBC Nightly News broadcast (with anchor Brian Williams) touted as reporting that “All Americans Will Receive a Microchip Implant in 2017”:
But of course, simply viewing the clip in question shows that it actually reported nothing of the kind.
This ABOVE clip is a (typically brief and shallow) NBC Evening News feature from 2007 speculating upon what life might be like in the U.S. in ten years’ time (i.e., 2017). This particular segment focused on ways in which we might “safeguard and identify all those things that make each of us unique,” addressing in particular the use of biometrics (technologies that measure and analyze human body characteristics) to build and access databases of information about individuals, for purposes ranging from security identification to recognizing their consumer preferences.
A potential future technology mentioned at the beginning of the clip was the use of chips implanted under the skin that would store important medical information to be retrieved by those responsible for delivering medical care and treatment. But microchips were just one of several possible biometric technologies surveyed in the segment, along with fingerprints, iris scans, and facial recognition software. Nowhere did the clip claim or predict that “all Americans will receive a microchip implant in 2017,” any more than it asserted that (as imagined in the 2002 neo-noir science fiction mystery-thriller film Minority Report) by 2017 retailers will be scanning our irises as we enter their stores to show us promotions tailored to our buying habits and preferences.
In short, NBC simply mentioned the use of microchips for personal ID purposes (along with several other biometric technologies) as something that might come about by 2017; they didn’t definitively state that it would be commonplace by then, much less maintain that it would be a mandatory provision of daily life in America. And they certainly didn’t link it to any provision of Obamacare, as the NBC report initially aired over two years prior to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
